In his autobiography, “Hope,” the late Pope Francis reiterated many themes of his papacy, including his hatred of war, concern for the environment, and support of migrants.
Now, that book is becoming accessible to even more readers.
Malachy Fallon, executive director of Xavier Society for the Blind, joins Currents News to discuss the book’s availability in Braille.
To learn more about Xavier Society for the Blind and see their full range of Braille texts, visit xaviersocietyfortheblind.org
WHITESTONE — Hers was a voice that listeners of 1010 WINS looked forward to hearing. Now that her tenure at New York’s all-news radio station has come to an end, Sister Camille D’Arienzo is looking back at her years at the station with fondness.
Sister Camille, 92, a member of the Sisters of Mercy who lives in Whitestone, offered her final commentary on 1010 WINS on Sunday, June 1.
For more than five decades, she had been a fixture at the station, offering minute-long commentaries every Sunday on faith, social justice, and other topics.
“I enjoyed every minute of it,” Sister Camille said. “I found that the microphone was my friend.”
When it came time for her final appearance, she delivered her commentary with her usual grace and understatement.
“I’ve had a long, satisfying run on this radio station — 52 years. I’m grateful for the welcome I received, for the friendships I’ve enjoyed, and for the response from our listeners,” she told the audience, “But as with all things in this life, there comes a time to say goodbye. And for me, that time is now.”
Over the years, Sister Camille delivered more than 2,000 commentaries, perfecting the art of making a well-thought-out, concise point in a limited time frame.
RELATED: Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan, Faithful Celebrate Sisters of Mercy For ‘Legacy’ of Service
“If you only have one minute, then you have to pick something that either everybody already knows something about, has an opinion about, or would be easily understood,” she explained.
It was 1973, and Sister Camille was teaching at Brooklyn College and occasionally writing for The Tablet when she heard from a friend, Father Howard Basler, that 1010 WINS had approached him with the idea of providing weekly commentaries.
“And he said to me, ‘I have neither the interest nor the voice to do that. But I think you do well.’ I was immediately intrigued by the idea,” she recalled.
As it happened, Sister Camille had just completed her doctoral dissertation on the career of Eric Sevareid, the legendary CBS radio and television commentator.
When she went to the 1010 WINS studio to be interviewed, she said there were three men sitting in a semicircle asking a lot of questions.
“I said, ‘Well, I’m ready to do this.’ One of them said, ‘We never thought of a woman for the job,’ ” she recalled.
Her reply was priceless: “I said, ‘Well, I’d like you to think of this woman.’ ”
She got the job and, over the years, has delivered her commentaries on the need for compassion in the public square, the importance of faith, and how every person can contribute to creating a better world.
Despite becoming somewhat of a radio star, she has never forgotten her roots. She remained active in the Sisters of Mercy, even serving a four-year term as president of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas.
While she has stepped down from her role at 1010 WINS, Sister Camille said she won’t be idle as the vows she took as a Sister of Mercy last a lifetime — “There is still so much work to do.”
By Katie Vasquez
The Diocese of Immigrants has welcomed parishioners and priests from across the world.
French Deacon Benoit Chavanne says he already feels like he’s part of the church in Brooklyn and Queens, even though his ordination day in the Diocese of Brooklyn isn’t for another week and a half.
A new scholarship at St. John’s University is helping future Catholic educators afford college and give back by teaching in Diocese of Brooklyn schools.
A Queens Catholic man biked nearly 700 miles through Poland to raise awareness about antisemitism — he received a special blessing from Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican.
The Holy Father is using his public audiences to call for peace in the Middle East.
Pope Francis’ biography is now available in Braille, making his story more accessible to all.
By Katie Vasquez
High school has wrapped up for Jillian Anzalone, and now the St Francis Prep senior is ready to take on her next challenge, college.
She plans to attend St John’s University in the fall, her dream school.
“I didn’t want to go far. But the campus is really pretty,” said Anzalone, a senior at St Francis Prep. “I just really loved it when I went there.”
She’s always loved being around kids and decided teaching would be the best career path for her.
“I realized this summer when Prep gave me the opportunity to work with the summer youth camp for the cheerleading team, I got to really work with kids and like, be in charge,” said Anzalone.
And the Queens Catholic college is helping make that dream a reality, thanks to a new partnership between the Office of the Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Brooklyn and St John’s university.
“It’s a calling to teach at a Catholic school, calling to be a Catholic school principal, and I think it’s giving them the opportunity and the financial support or assistance to fulfill that dream, and then also, again, greatly benefiting us by giving us qualified Catholic educators,” said Joan McMaster, the deputy superintendent of Diocese of Brooklyn schools.
The “Future Catholic School Teacher Scholarship” aims to recruit and train new elementary school teachers for the Diocese of Brooklyn by providing a $10,000 scholarship over 4 years. In exchange students like Jillian agree to teach in a catholic elementary school at least four years after graduating or they have to pay the money back.
“If we put money in the game, Brooklyn put some money in the game, then we want to be sure these are students are going to go back to teaching in the Brooklyn schools,” said James Wolfinger, the dean of the school of education for St John’s University.
Not only does it alleviate the financial burden for students but schools will get teachers with a strong faith foundation.
“A place like St John’s, given our faith background at this university, can really focus on the preparation of teachers in ways that meet the needs of those schools,” said Wolfinger.
“It will allow our schools to continue to recruit qualified teachers. So for us, this is like a real win-win situation, especially in light of we’re all aware of the teacher shortage,” said McMaster.
Jillian is looking forward to continuing the path she’s always wanted.
“I thought it was like the best opportunity because it just works out in my plan that I want to pursue.”
The program will also help students pursue masters degrees with up to a 70 percent reduction on tuition.
For more information on the scholarship, you can visit the Institute for Catholic schools page on St John’s University website.
By Katie Vasquez
Heading to college can be costly, but a new scholarship program at St. John’s University is helping a St. Francis Prep student earn her degree while helping Diocese of Brooklyn schools.
Some eighth graders in the Diocese of Brooklyn wrapped up their podcast season with a special guest — Bishop Robert Brennan.
Thousands gathered at Rate Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, for a special Mass honoring Pope Leo XIV.
Inspired by reading bedtime stories to his own kids, a Catholic dad is writing books that celebrate fatherhood, family, and even college football.
Fourth graders at a Queens Catholic academy are celebrating becoming published authors.
By Currents News and Simone Orendain
CHICAGO (OSV News) — Under a bright sun, around an altar set up at centerfield, more than a dozen priests and bishops led by Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich concelebrated a special Mass for the election of a first-ever Chicago-born pope. Trinity Sunday’s vigil Mass June 14 was at Rate Field, the home park of the Chicago White Sox, Pope Leo XIV’s favorite baseball team.
Concelebrants included the Archdiocese of Chicago’s auxiliary bishops as well as bishops from surrounding dioceses, several Augustinian priests, the incoming president of Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union and other clergy. The liturgy included multilingual readings and prayers of the faithful, with the psalm sung in Spanish and English.
From the ambo, Cardinal Cupich looked around the stadium nearly filled with tens of thousands of people.
“Wow. I think I will remember this moment as ‘the sermon on the mound,’” he said in a tongue-in-cheek reference to Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount recounted in Matthew 5-7.
Cardinal Cupich then preached a homily on people’s inherent dignity, inviting the faithful to “live authentically” and taking a forceful stand against the country’s immigration policy.
Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich delivers the homily as he celebrates a June 14, 2025, Mass in honor of Pope Leo XIV at Rate Field in Chicago, home of the Chicago White Sox baseball team. The Chicago-born pontiff, elected May 8, is the first American pope in history. (OSV News photo/Simone Orendain)
The cardinal reminded those present and watching via livestream that their worth comes from the fact that they are loved by God, that they are called to a life of self-giving service, and that life is to be lived not in isolation but through an interconnectedness with others, mirroring the relationship between the three persons of the Holy Trinity.
RELATED: Chicago Archdiocese, White Sox Team up To Celebrate Pope Leo and His ‘Message of Peace’
In emphasizing people’s interconnection, he said, “Humanity is greatly diminished whenever the unborn or the undocumented, the unemployed, the unhealthy, are excluded, uninvited, and unwelcome or whenever we tell ourselves that they are of no concern to us.” The comment received widespread applause.
While acknowledging nations’ duties to secure their borders, protect the public “and enact reasonable rules for immigration,” Cardinal Cupich said, “it is wrong to scapegoat those who are here without documents. For indeed, they are here due to a broken immigration system” to sustained clapping.
“Both parties have failed to fix” that system, he admonished.
“(The undocumented) are here, not by invasion, but by invitation,” he said as the applause and cheers became louder.
“(It’s) an invitation to harvest the fruits of the earth and feed our families, an invitation to clean our tables, homes and hotel rooms, an invitation to landscape our lawns, and yes, even an invitation to care for our children and our elderly. I have no doubt that if we are honest about our connections to one another, we can respond to this moment and thus reclaim our calling to live as authentic persons in the image of the divine persons,” he said.
Pope Leo XIV, a dual citizen of both the United States and Peru, spent nearly 20 years on mission in Peru, where he taught seminarians and practiced canon law, and later led the Diocese of Chiclayo along the country’s impoverished northwestern coast.
The Mass was preceded by a video message from Pope Leo XIV addressed mainly to young people, instructing them to look deep within their hearts and recognize that God is calling them to a relationship with his son Jesus Christ, and to be the “light of hope to the world.”
In the video, the pope referred to one of St. Augustine’s famous phrases, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O God,’” and, he added, “that restlessness is not a bad thing.”
“We shouldn’t look for ways to put out the fire, to eliminate or even numb ourselves to the tensions that we feel, the difficulties that we experience. We should rather get in touch with our own hearts and recognize that God can work in our lives, through our lives, and through us, reach out to other people,” Pope Leo said.
The pope stressed that God’s love is a source of hope and strength, which is a message young people can proliferate, he said.
After the Mass and celebration of the first Chicago native’s election to the papacy, the faithful pose with Pope Leo XIV cutouts stationed throughout the concession areas of Rate Field, the home park of the Chicago White Sox, Pope Leo’s favorite team. Chicago, June 14, 2025. (OSV News photo/Simone Orendain)
Among the attendees was Matthew Agoncillo, a student at the University of Illinois in Chicago who volunteered with its Newman Center during the distribution of the Eucharist at the Mass. He said he felt challenged by Pope Leo’s message.
“I think it’s sometimes hard to conceptualize what that means,” Agoncillo, 20, told OSV News. “For me, being a light is just spreading the faith through an abundance of love through yourself and spreading that to other people, which will hopefully send more light to other people, and the whole world can be on fire with a bunch of joy. So I think it’s important to share your light with other people.”
Ian Moran, a recent University of Illinois in Chicago graduate, told OSV News that he enjoyed how the pope encouraged young people to dive deep in their faith.
“I know for me, growing up, I didn’t really hear that that often,” the 23-year-old said. “Hearing that from the pope and him … actually encouraging us as young people, like, ‘Make this your own, Jesus loves you’ — he wants you to take on the faith as your own, I thought that was very good.”
RELATED: Pope’s Brother Says Even As a Baby, Future Pontiff Had a Spiritual ‘Air’ About Him
The pre-Mass program started with the national anthem of Peru sung by Luis Galvez, a native Peruvian and music director at a suburban Chicago parish. That was followed by the U.S. national anthem, sung by the choir of Leo High School, a Chicago Catholic boys school that is a contender in this season’s America’s Got Talent.
Prior to the Mass, Pope Leo’s longtime friend and high school classmate, Augustinian Father John Merkelis, talked about the pope’s humble, “regular guy” character. His former professor at Catholic Theological Union, Sister Dianne Bergant, a member of the Sisters St. Agnes of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, said she kept all her records from 45 years of teaching and he was a good student.
In the minutes before the program began, Cardinal Cupich brought to the stage a group of first through fourth grade students from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy on Chicago’s Northside, who were dressed as cardinals, with one in papal attire. The students had held a mock conclave, complete with billowing white smoke, which drew international attention when they elected their own pretend pope May 6, a day before the real conclave started. The newly-elected mock pope took the name Augustine.
The June 14 celebration hosted by the Chicago White Sox was organized by the Archdiocese of Chicago. Chicago Catholic, the archdiocese’s news outlet, reported that, days after the conclave, Cardinal Cupich was dining with donors who happened to know the owner of the White Sox, Jerry Reinsdorf, when the cardinal’s staff brought up the idea for a celebration and Mass. The donors reportedly talked to Reinsdorf, which set plans for the event in motion.
Jennifer Esposito of Oak Park, a suburb west of Chicago, said she was happy to attend the June 14 event in honor of Chicago’s native son.
“It’s still settling in that we have an American pope, let alone a pope from Chicago who sat in this stadium,” she told OSV News. “I mean, it’s just crazy, but I’m so glad I did (attend). That was one of the most beautiful experiences, just to have all these people together and just the way they celebrated all the different cultures, I thought was fantastic. And I loved his (the pope’s) message. I hope it resonates with young people, and I hope he’s going to be a good beacon for our church.”
A family arrives ahead a June 14, 2025, Mass in honor of Pope Leo XIV at Rate Field in Chicago, home of the Chicago White Sox baseball team. The Chicago-born pontiff, elected May 8, is the first American pope in history. (OSV News photo/Carlos Osorio, Reuters)
By Katie Vasquez
One last mic check as Divine Wisdom Catholic Academy records its final “Voices of Divine Wisdom” podcast for the school year.
And these students are ending this season with a bang, bringing on special guest and podcast host himself, Bishop Robert Brennan.
“It was very interesting to talk with the young people and to be interviewed by them. and they had great questions and great interest and a good amount of knowledge,” said Bishop Robert Brennan of the Diocese of Brooklyn.
It’s a collaboration that’s been brewing since the kids started their podcast earlier in the year, during Catholic Schools week.
“For it to come to fruition was so exciting,” said Miriam Bonici, the principal of Divine Wisdom Catholic Academy, “I think that, bishop coming to our school and his message really, just it cements all that we’re doing here, and it just validates all that we’re doing around, you know, keeping Christ at the center.”
Bishop Brennan says this is an example of the quality education that Catholic schools provide.
“The schools are about the education and the formation of the whole person, and to integrate, our beliefs and our, following the gospel, our faith is using this new media is a great opportunity,” said Bishop Brennan.
These 8th graders had the chance to ask the tough questions.
“I asked him about, like, what keeps him grounded in times of turbulence? he answered with, like, I pray to Mother Theresa, I pray to certain saints, and I was like, you know what? that’s something I can do,” said 8th grader, Sofia Starcic.
As they prepare to move on to high school, Bishop Brennan offered some advice.
“I always try to say always stay close to the lord, always stay close to Christ, count on him as a friend” said Bishop Brennan.
Words they will remember even after the mics turn off.
“I liked how much Bishop Brennan knew and how he knew that God was always going to be there for us, even when we’re in times of despair,” said 8th grader, Nick Roder.
The podcast has been so popular, there is a waiting list of students that want to take part. The principal hopes to explore more topics and include additional guest speakers for next school year.
At St. Michael’s Catholic Academy in Queens, a Mandarin-English program helped one student from China go from knowing no English to becoming nearly fluent in just one year.
The Mary Louis Academy in Queens will be opening its doors to younger students this fall, thanks to a brand-new middle school on campus.
Pupils at Divine Wisdom Catholic Academy are stepping up to the mic with a podcast. The Queens students are sharing their thoughts, classroom stories, and creativity while building communication skills.
Cristo Rey Brooklyn High School brings joy with a friendly “Dancing With the Teachers” competition.